Madrid & Valencia – Gandia Blasco

BLAU is back this year with a more extensive outdoor collection. Designed by the architectural studio Fran Silvestre, BLAU is manufactured exclusively using aluminium profiles, hence its light and fluid forms. The structural profiles are designed in an orthographic manner, while the seats adopt a curved geometry that recalls more traditional fabric chairs – as Fran Silvestre points out: ’The use of perforated panels allows the light to pass through each of the pieces, making them almost transparent whilst preventing water from gathering on the horizontal planes.’

BLAU, which is the word used to describe the colour blue in that region of the Mediterranean around Valencia, also refers to its lifestyle. ‘When we build things here we never ignore the continuity of the indoors and the outdoors, or the understanding of light as a construction material,’ adds Silvestre.

With this first collaboration between the Valencia-based architect and Gandia Blasco, the geometries expressed and the manufacturing criteria employed make his search for ‘efficient beauty’ manifest. The architect adds: ‘We consider it just as one would an architectural commission, simply on a smaller scale.’